Lumina Nightglow's Arc

Chapter 10 of 34

The broken wall of cold still smoked behind Lumina. The host of starlit creatures stood around her, waiting. They had done their work. Their light had cracked the ancient dark. Now the fighting had stopped, and they had nothing to do. Each one turned its bright eyes toward her. They wanted her to tell them where to go. Lumina looked back at them. Dozens of creatures, no two alike, their blood glowing like small rivers of stars. None of them led the others. None knew the forest as she did. She felt the weight settle on her shoulders. They had crossed the dark for her. Now they were hers to guide. "They have no home," she said. "They came out of the cold with nothing." Heart Solia sparkle stepped beside her. Leaves and flowers wound through her long hair. She was the fairy the heart had made when Lumina merged with it. She pressed a hand to Lumina's arm. "Then give them one," she said. "You carry the whole forest inside you. Use it." Lumina knelt and pressed her palms to the soil. She reached down through the roots, the way she had learned to heal the groves. She did not send fire. She sent a wish. She pictured a place for the creatures to rest. She pictured a place for herself too. The ground answered. A great tree rose in the clearing, thick as a tower. Vines wove its walls. Flowers burst open across every floor, six floors climbing into the sky. Light glowed in each window like stars trapped in glass. Lanterns swung from the branches. It was tall and wide, with room for all of them. The host poured inside. They climbed the balconies. They curled on the flowered floors. For the first time since the cold, they were calm. Lumina stood at the base and watched them settle. She had built them a home. She had built herself one. Celsius Heartwood came through the trees. Small white flowers trembled in her green hair. She had guided Lumina since the first days at the heart. She looked up at the tree, then at the creatures resting inside it. "You are not just their light now," she said. "You are their keeper. They will follow where you lead." Lumina understood what that meant. The creatures were bound to her. Wherever she went, they would go. Whatever she asked, they would try. Their strength was hers to spend. She turned toward the ancient dark, still stretching cold and deep beyond the broken edge. The last darkness waited there. But she no longer stood alone before it. She had a home at her back and a host that answered her word. "Rest tonight," she told them. "Tomorrow we go into the last of the dark. And we finish waking the forest."